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Tuesday, 10 November 2015

SWAZILAND, AN ‘OPEN-AIR PRISON’

Swaziland has become an ‘open-air prison, a militarised
society and a royal farm’ in which people become mere farmworkers for the King
and his family, according
to new research published in an international academic journal.

‘The autocratic system parasitically feeds off the
labour of the poor, whose primary reason for existence is to work for the royal
family and reproduce future workers of the same’, Bongani Masuku and Peter Limb
conclude.

Masuku and Limb say that the education system in the
kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute
monarch, is in decline and only 6 percent of high school graduates go on to
further education.

‘The aim appears to be to deny wider educational
opportunities and discourage various forms of critical thinking and action so
that more and more people see success tied to the mercy of the King, whose
propaganda is pushed on state-owned radio and exploited in cultural spheres,’
they write in the Review
of African Political Economy.

They say, ‘Many rural areas lack basic services such
as clean water, health facilities, schools and roads whilst the royal family
and its politicians enjoy lavish lifestyles.’

Masuku, the International Relations Secretary of the
Congress of South African Trade Unions and Limb, of the Michigan State
University, United States, analyse the present state of ‘political freedom and
democracy’ in Swaziland.

They say the monarchy ‘exercises absolute power’
through the system of governance known as tinkhundla. The royal family controls
key economic sectors and has its ‘footstalls’ in the form of chiefs at
community levels.

They add that key appointments of power are
exclusively the King’s prerogative. ‘He appoints the prime minister, chief
justice, principal secretaries and political commissions. State legal immunity,
absence of political parties and suppression of the media and civil society
undermine the rule of law and accountability.’